Questions To Ask Yourself When Wanting To Study Medicine

Medicine is a very demanding, yet rewarding career choice. People choosing this discipline often do so as they want to make a difference in other's lives by helping them and being a positive impact through health care.

There are many questions that potential medical students have, and these need to be addressed in order that the correct decision is made before embarking on this journey.

What kind of doctors are needed?

Medicine consists of many disciplines that one can specialize in such as surgery, internal medicine, paediatrics, psychiatry, obstetrics and many more. The most crucial though is primary care physicians, especially in under-served, rural areas, where many doctors are needed in order to supply an adequate service to large numbers of patients.

How do I know if medicine is the right choice for me?

Here, you have to know yourself in terms of your personality, what interests you, your values, aptitudes and your goals. Personal insight tools such as the Myers Briggs Personality Inventory and Rokeach Values Survey, will help you gain a perspective on yourself and aid in determining if medicine would be mentioned as a potential interest.

Many students who enter colleges or universities wanting to become doctors, have little or no knowledge of what is involved in becoming a physician. Therefore, you have to do your homework on what is expected of a medical doctor and what the challenges and rewards are which may be faced. The following are suggestions of how to go about getting further information regarding these aspects:

• You need to find out what the academic requirements are for wanting to study medicine. It would be recommended that this should be done when making subject choices in high school, as specific ones such as Mathematics, Science and Biology have a large impact on the selection of candidates for medicine.
• You need to find out, from the potential institution of study, what the course length is and what is going to be required from you, especially in the clinical years. Here, exposure to dead bodies, blood and long working hours at night are all something you will need to be comfortable with.
• Having an informal interview with doctors to found out more about their careers will help look at what demands medicine has not only from a career aspect, but also regarding ones social and family life. 

READ Questions To Be Answered By Medical Schools When Wanting To Study Medicine

Is studying medicine expensive?

This all depends on where you live and where you want to study, but the general consensus is that medicine is a financially demanding discipline. Although it is expensive, it is one of the most financially rewarding careers available. Due to this, financial companies are more lax towards future doctors when it comes to loan repayments.

I want to study medicine but I'm not sure about the choice

Doing a pre-med course first can help you to decide whether medicine is indeed for you or if you would like to follow another career path. Some credits gained during this course can be deferred to another if you do decide to change your studies. 

Questions Asked During An Interview With A Prospective Medical School

At any time in your medical career, be it from before being accepted as a candidate for an undergraduate programme or going for a promotion to head of a medical department, interviews may be conducted. This can be a stressful time, but if you are well prepared then you should do well enough to be considered for the applied position.

Here, we shall focus on and discuss questions which are asked by interviewers to prospective medical students. The questions focused on here will be academically and medically orientated, as well as the ambiguous questions faced in all interviews, in order to fit in with the topic of the article.

Ambiguous questions

The following questions may be asked:

• Tell us about yourself.
• What goals do you want to achieve?
• How is it that we should remember you?
• Why should we choose you among the hundreds of applicants?
• Why do you want to study medicine?
• How would you convince us that you would make a good doctor?

Academically orientated questions 

Medical schools prefer choosing candidates who are committed to medicine, who are well-disciplined and who are driven to seek out knowledge independent of the required learning outcomes.

Questions that may be asked to determine the commitment of the candidate may include the following:

• What is your favourite subject currently and why?
• Why did you choose the current study course?
• Would you consider a career in the current study course?
• How do you prepare for tests and exams?
• Convince us that you can handle the workload associated with medical school.
• Do you involve yourself in self-directed learning?

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Medically orientated questions

The following questions may be asked depending on which country you are applying for a medical position and may even be relevant in accepting medical students.

• What changes would you make to the current health-care system?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages to the health-care system?
• Are doctors making too much money?
• What is the Hippocratic Oath/ Oath of medicine (country dependent)?
• Is it ethical for health care workers to strike?
• What is your opinion on medical aid insurers who offer preferred provider care versus comprehensive cover?
• If an underage girl requests an abortion or the 'morning-after pill', and she requested that her parents not know about this, what would you do in this situation?
• Should stem cells be used to manage a disease such as Parkinson's?
• If a patient was dying from severe loss of blood, would you transfuse them despite them not approving?

Always remember to be truthful when answering questions. If you don't have an answer, then rather just say so as any made-up information will make matters bad for you and will the interviewers will not be impressed.